Blindness
by Blind and Painted Avatards
Summary: There are certain disadvantages that come with being blind- Toph identity finding one-shots. Ch 1- Toph can't see color and when a random man approaches the gaang, she isn't able identify him as good or bad. Ch 2- tokka fluff. can toph see emotion?
1. Colors

Color.

Red. Green. Blue. Orange. In color you can see emotion, personality, and most importantly identity. It identifies whom we belong to; red and black for Fire Nation, green and brown for Earth Kingdom, blue and white for Water Tribe, and orange and yellow for Air Nomads. Without color, we have no one. We have nothing. Or do we?

I, Toph, wear green everyday, or so I'm told. I am different, a blind girl, she who cannot see faces clearly let alone the color of someone's shirt. To me, not having color is not a lost of identity or spirit, its just normal…it's just how I see things everyday. I could say that color does not matter but, when someone approaches, I have to be told who they are. When we don't know them, my friends look at the color of their clothing to identify who they're with and what side they're one. So maybe color does matter after all, color can be the line between life and death.

We sit upon an empty corner of the lot behind a teashop in the lower ring. A man approaches. Here is what I know from what I am feeling through the vibrations hitting my feet:

-this man is stealth

-he is sly

- he is strong

Do my instinct say run or do they say greet him? I have no idea.

"Run!" Katara whispers harshly, and we split. The man attacks, earthbending at me in every direction. I dodge and throw a rock straight at him. He tumbles. We run away, past the lower ring and into a safe haven: the shop of Iroh.

"How'd you know?" I ask quietly after we slip inside and greet our old friend. I am curious to know how Katara figured out he was bad, but feel stupid that I couldn't figure out if he was dangerous by myself.

"How did I know what?" Katara asked back, still shooken up from the commotion.

"That he was bad...that we had to run."

"I don't know..." Katara said as she sat pondering my question.

"Was it his smirk? He had quite a strange look on his face," Sokka suggested.

"Or maybe his stance? I felt his quickness," I added. "But it wasn't enough to make me think he was bad."

"It was his outfit. The green hat with brown rim and green coat seemed to scream, "Run!" to me. An image of jet's death flashed through my mind and I realized that the man was Dai Lee: the only people who are still loyal to Azula," Katara announced at last.

"I should have known! I could have recognized him. If he had earthbended, I could have recognized his techniques. It is times like this that I wish I wasn't blind, so I could see and judge situations by their appearances."

"Don't say that Toph! What you have is a gift. The monks always taught us not to always judge on first glances, to look beneath what we see," Aang tells me. "You have that ultimate ability that the rest of us can never reach. You look at someone and judge them on who they are on the inside."

"Do you know how much I want the whole world to be like that?" Zuko chimed in, feeling his face. "If they couldn't see my scar."

"That's why you were trusting Zuko when we didn't. You looked beyond what we saw: a firenation prince who is scary and untrustworthy. And look who was right? You."

"If I was alone in that parking lot I would be dead right now," Toph says vulgarly. "You know it, and I know it. I couldn't see the green or brown or whatever you call those colors. I couldn't see his smirk. I could only see his stance. What am I suppose to do? Run from anyone who might be a threat because they are strong? Zuko is strong, he is not a threat. Not anymore. Sokka is strong. Should I run from him?"

"Yeah. Sokka is evil." Katara states sarcastically, causing Zuko to chuckle softly and everyone else to give a "not the right moment," glance at Katara. "Sorry," Katara mumbles before shutting up.

Iroh walks over the table, sensing some need for his wisdom. "Toph, you are blind, and everyone here knows that you can't see what we see: physical appearances. But you have our eyes for that. Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Zuko can tell you the color of someone's hat, and which nation someone belongs to, but we have you to tell us what really matters: what's inside."


	2. emotion

Emotions

She sat on the floor, Sokka's head buried into her shoulder.

He was her best friend, and yet when he came to her crying she didn't know what to do. She had never been one for emotions and "silly" stuff like that but when she asked him to see Katara he shook his head and mumbled something about needing Toph. Maybe it was the fact that she really couldn't see his face very well that made her confused. Maybe it was just that she was 13-year-old tomboy who had her a 17-year-old male best friend crying on her shoulder. Something really must have been bothering him tonight.

It was funny how he did this, she thought. One day he barely even saw her, engrossed in his girlfriend. The next, he was crying on her shoulder. She liked it, of course, that he came to her. Even if she was being used a little, she liked being the one that he ran too.

"What's wrong?" she managed to ask. He stopped crying, realizing what he was doing.

"I'm sorry. I must look like a fool."

"You do," Toph retorted. Then corrected herself, channeling Katara, "but its okay."

"Thanks." Sokka knew that Toph wasn't one for emotions mainly because she wasn't always the best at reading people's faces. She could see them through her earthbending senses pretty well, but they were still fuzzy. He remained silent, but that only bugged her more.

"Look snoozles. Are you going to just sit here and cry into my shoulders or are you going to tell me what happened?" She even surprised herself as she asked this. She was turning more and more like Katara everyday.

"Ok. So I don't know why, but Suki wasn't here today."

Toph laughed. Suki had been out looking for Sokka's birthday present all day.

"And we had a fight…."

"Sokka, I'm sure that she's going to come back."

"No I don't think so. I said some mean things."

The thought of Suki and Sokka fighting confused Toph. She never heard either of them complain about one another. Toph pondered over this.

"She thinks I'm too controlling, and maybe I am."

As a friend, Toph knew the best thing she could do was tell Sokka that Suki did really love him. But, in some sort of crushy love with Sokka herself, she could barely bring herself to say this. What she really wanted was for Sokka to stay on her shoulder forever. But she took a deep breath and told him the truth.

"She getting better at seeing emotion," Sokka thought to himself.

Soon after, Suki arrived and kissed Sokka. "I'm sorry about our fight yesterday."

"Me too."

The next day, Sokka pulled Toph to talk to her alone.

"You know Toph," he said aloud. "Sometimes I think because your blind you can't tell what people are feeling. But it seems like you're the one to know best."

She smiled. "I know."

Sokka laughed.


End file.
